i remember going out with other jws after the memorial.. small gatherings.. picnics at some local landmark.. the feeling of closeness, camaraderie, friendship with like minded people you could trust.. haven't experienced it since i left.. really miss that..
Anastasius,
It matters not what I feel, believe or think. My only objective on this site is to try to get people to follow the evidence, to become empiricists rather than relying on feelings, beliefs and confirmation bias. The following is a very small slice of the evidence. There are tons:
i remember going out with other jws after the memorial.. small gatherings.. picnics at some local landmark.. the feeling of closeness, camaraderie, friendship with like minded people you could trust.. haven't experienced it since i left.. really miss that..
Frank, "This society has changed dramatically for the worse as any decent person will agree. (UK)."
I don't live in the UK, so I will leave most of the response to your statement to those who do. However, the latest figures from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) showed that, for the offences it covers, there was a 7% decrease compared with the previous year’s survey, and the lowest estimate since the CSEW began in 1981. The incidence of rape has increased sharply from the year before, however.
Your personal experiences aside (and I am sorry that you have suffered wrong), the state of the union is better than ever based on the data. The same condition exists in nearly every industrialized nation; the are safer and more secure than ever.
Telling us that things are bad as any 'decent' person would agree is an "Argument from intimidation", which, based on John T. Reed's Debating Strategies, is "its appeal to moral self-doubt and its reliance on the fear, guilt or ignorance of the victim. It is used in the form of an ultimatum demanding that the victim renounce a given idea without discussion, under threat of being considered morally unworthy."
It is an intellectually dishonest (emotional) tactic used by those without either facts or logic.
jw girl non-jw guy.
tenuous boyfriend-girlfriend relationship.
what is more likely to strengthen a relationship?.
thank you,
You asked for opinions, and you received exactly what you asked for and exactly what you deserved based on the statement - your statement - I copied. Childishly avoiding responding to negative opinions and seeking refuge behind the skirts of those who liked you Sally suggests you are emotionally immature and manipulative.
I made an honest and very accurate assessment of your statement, devoid of any venom. That is not the problem; that is the solution to childish, immature and manipulative people. Suggesting otherwise, or that those who disagree with you aren't normal and aren't optimists is manipulation of the highest level. Hiding behind the skirts of girls kinda sorta proves my point.
Mr. Koresh, you aren't smart enough to play this game with me. Go play with, and manipulate, girls. If you want to play with grown up adult males, I'm right here waiting on you Richard.
i remember going out with other jws after the memorial.. small gatherings.. picnics at some local landmark.. the feeling of closeness, camaraderie, friendship with like minded people you could trust.. haven't experienced it since i left.. really miss that..
Athanasius,
My statement is accurate. The more secular and atheistic a state, region or nation is, the more likely it is functional and happy.
This suggests a strong correlation but not a direct correlation. N Korea is an oppressive dictatorship where state worship is the religion.
jw girl non-jw guy.
tenuous boyfriend-girlfriend relationship.
what is more likely to strengthen a relationship?.
thankyou,
I'm the luckiest, most blessed and happiest person on this site. An ad hominem attack will get you nowhere.
You asked for opinions. I provided an opinion and quantified it by replicating your statement. That's how this process works. Please re-read your statement I copied. If you didn't mean that, then please explain. Otherwise, I can read that statement a thousand times and come to no other conclusion.
i remember going out with other jws after the memorial.. small gatherings.. picnics at some local landmark.. the feeling of closeness, camaraderie, friendship with like minded people you could trust.. haven't experienced it since i left.. really miss that..
Frank Ward,
It's been a while since a theist made such a definitive and erroneous statement regarding atheists. We used to get them all the time. I believe we quietened the theists by presenting empirical data - you know Frank, it's information that is based on obtained by scientific methods rather than feelings, confirmation bias and cherry picking anecdotal experiences.
As we've presented on numerous occasions, the more atheistic a state, region or country, the more likely it is to be functional and happy. In the annual 'happiest nations' survey, the happiest nations (most of the top 20) are the most secular and atheistic. Sorry to burst your bubble (actually I'm not sorry at all - I derive great pleasure in it), but your statement regarding atheists is completely erroneous. The exact opposite appears to be the case.
One of the questions asked of those surveyed during the 'happiest nation' poll is if the respondent could count on someone in times of need, which is a question designed to measure the quality of community and relationships within communities. The most secular and atheistic nations scored the highest on this question.
I have a ton of this data, available for your viewing pleasure. PM me and I will send it to you.
jw girl non-jw guy.
tenuous boyfriend-girlfriend relationship.
what is more likely to strengthen a relationship?.
Dear Mr. Koresh, I mean thank you,
You want an opinion? You had me at hello. You lost me when you said this: "In my soul I feel a spiritual obligation. I don't need her love or her warm body. I need to help her. I have unlimited girl friends. It can't be explained with just words here."
Yes it can. You are an egocentric narcissist with a god/messiah complex, and you don't understand the difference between 'want' and 'need' nor whose soul you are trying to fill.
i can see it now, we are the most beautiful and smartest people in the world.. steve harvey will never be the host of another beauty pageant.
lol.
i was thinking, don't you think it's time for our society to move on from beauty pageants?.
Changes in certitudes, changes in platitudes, nothing remains quite the same. And James, you do know that the 3000 year old nonsense you cited was supposedly written by a man who surrounded himself with beauty and who had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines. I doubt there were any uglies in the group. If the fool had Prozac, he would have written something entirely different (beauty? girls? Oh HELL yeah!).
And it's told (actually I just made it up) that Solomon had to be cremated because the under-taker couldn't get the big grin off his face, and they were afraid of the responses during the open casket viewing. The official death certificate, found recently in a Jerusalem tomb (not really), indicated the cause of Solomon's demise was "death by high fiving."
From today's news:
Baghdad holds Miss Iraq pageant for the first time in 43 years, By Salim Essaid, CNN, Updated 1:37 AM ET, Wed December 23, 2015
(CNN)When Shaima Qasim was crowned Miss Iraq this weekend, she not only triumphed over the other women in the competition but over threats against her life. The pageant was the first to be held in Baghdad in 43 years.
"Iraq needed this," pageant director Ahmed Leith said. "The situation is weak here, and we wanted to celebrate this the same way other countries like Lebanon and others do. To have a sense of normalcy.”
Irrelevant?
i was perusing the internet not long ago and came upon this series of videos by a guy calling himself xendrius.
it declares that many of today's best magicians are in league with the devil.
his claims are based on his observation that the tricks would be impossible to do unless the magicians had made unholy pacts with the devil.. so what's the take of the wtbts?
Well at least Cold Steel isn't prophesying like he used to as a self appointed member of the new GB, with a direct conduit to the big girl in the sky and special knowledge of all things scripture and prophecy - where all those before him were wrong and he was right and we should all listen to him and his sageness.
I will take his belief in ghosties and ghoulies and long legged beasties and thing-ies that go bump in the night any day over that. Progress Cofty. Progress.
i wanted to share with you some feed back from this region.
since you could say tanzania and other regions within africa are the last hard to reach places on the earth.
it is where the www preaching work funds are directed, as being justified to get your donations.there are now no longer any foreigners at the branch within tanzania, they all were told to go.
There has been a sharp increase in Islamic based terror attacks in Tanzania. Of interest:
Recent Islamist-Associated Attacks in Tanzania
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November 2011 Tanzanian government issues a warning of potential al Shabab attacks after 10 Tanzanian nationals were arrested on the Kenya-Somalia border attempting to join al Shabab. |
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June 2012 Arrest of Emrah Erdogan, a German national who had joined al Shabab, at Dar es Salaam airport. |
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October 2012 Tanzanian policeman is hacked to death with machetes in Zanzibar. |
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November 2012 Acid attack on moderate, anti-UAMSHO Muslim imam in Zanzibar. |
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December 2012 Shooting of a Catholic priest in Zanzibar. |
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February 2013 Interfaith rioting in Mwanza area related to Muslim protests against Christian butchery practices leads to beheading of a local priest. |
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February 2013 Murder of a Catholic priest and torching of a church in Zanzibar. |
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March 2013 Rioting by Sheikh Ponda Issa Ponda supporters in Dar es Salaam. |
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May 2013 Handgrenade attack at St. Joseph’s Church in Arusha, killing 3 and wounding 63, during a celebration by the Vatican nuncio. |
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May 2013 Burning of a Christian church in Tanga region. |
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May 2013 Arrest of five men in Dar es Salaam in possession of explosives and impro- vised explosive device–related materials. |
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July 2013 Arrest of British terrorism suspect, Hassan Ali Iqbal, in Kyele, Mbeya region, as he tried to cross into Malawi. |
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August 2013 Acid attack on two young British women in Zanzibar’s Stone Town. |
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August 2013 Homemade petrol bomb attack on a Christian church in Dar es Salaam. |
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September 2013 Acid attack on a Catholic priest in Zanzibar’s Stone Town. |
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September 2013 Attempted handgrenade attack at shopping area in Zanzibar’s Stone Town. |
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September 2013 Killing of a elderly priest in Zanzibar’s Stone Town. |
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October 2013 Arrest of 13 suspected al Shabab–linked militants at a military-style training camp at Makolionga Mountain in Mtwara region. |
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October 2013 Arrest by Kenyan military forces of three Tanzanians traveling to Somalia to join al Shabab. |
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October 2013 Arrest of Tanzanian businessman Juma Abdallah Kheri for financing terrorism in Kenya and Tanzania. |
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November 2013 Arrest of 69 people running an “al Shabab child indoctrination camp” for over 50 4–13 year olds in Tanga. |
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January 2014 Explosives attack at New Year’s Eve celebration at Christian church in Arusha. |
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February 2014 Three IED attacks in Zanzibar targeting two Christian churches and a restau- rant popular with tourists. |
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February 2014 Acid attack on moderate Muslim preacher and his son in Arusha. |
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April 2014 Bombing of a crowded bar popular with tourists in Arusha, injuring 15 people. |
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June 2014 Explosives attack on a mosque in Zanzibar’s Stone Town, killing one and wounding four people, potentially linked to Islamists’ intent to attack an anti–al Shabab cleric. |
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July 2014 Explosives attack on the private house in Arusha where moderate clerics were gathered. |
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July 2014 Explosives attack on an Indian restaurant in Arusha popular with tourists and local residents. |
